need help w/ M1A

Used to shoot with RJ quite a bit. He was a regular fixture (along with any of his newbie SEALs) at any of the SoCal matches from the stumps to Pendleton in the late 70s' to mid 80's. Yeah, the story about his Navy Cross is one that has to be read to be believed. I've told people what he did, and the circumstances around that fight, and no one can believe that it was downgraded (he was originally put in for a Medal of Honor). definately the sort of guy you want watching your back in a firefight, no question there.

That was a neat crew. He's still doing well, retired now, and living out west.

Used to shoot with RJ quite a bit. . . . Yeah, the story about his Navy Cross is one that has to be read to be believed. I've told people what he did, and the circumstances around that fight, and no one can believe that it was downgraded (he was originally put in for a Medal of Honor). definately the sort of guy you want watching your back in a firefight, no question there.

For readers who don't know his event, think about a downed helo in North Viet Nam with wounded crew members and RJ was the only guy able to shoot did so with a .45 M1911 taking out many VC at ranges from a few feet away to near 100 yards while awaiting rescue. Not too shabby for a rifle shooter.

Talked with RJ at the Nationals one year, he said the only thing he regretted when in the Navy was he never made Chief Petty Officer. When he got out after 4 or so years as a Petty Officer Second Class then went to college and came back in the Navy as an officer. RJ always envied us CPO's and we oft time told him he would make a darned good officer. We think he took what we said to heart.

Best non-combat thing he told us was when asked by the SEAL folks what rate he wanted to be as all of them never did what their rating specialty was, RJ said he thought "Radarman" was the coolest thing to be called. So he was designated a Radarman for his Navy time and never spent one second of time in shipboard Combat Information Center where Radarmen normally did their thing watching radar displays.

I'll add a bit to that; When the chopper went down, RJ was the only one left more or less functional. He was carrying a Stoner 63 (?) at the time, and found it wrapped around part of the airframe of the chopper. The only weapons available to him were the 45s the aircrew had on them. All were badly injured, and RJ managed to haul them out of the burning chopper to a paddy dike a short distance away. A full NVA force came to take them into captivity and charged their position. RJ dropped a few in the first charge, and as he put it, "that took a lot of the entusiasm out of them." He held them off for some time, while they mounted a few more frontal assaults, all with nothing but the M1911s. When they finally got some more air support to them and were able to extract them, they counted over 40 dead NVA around his perimiter.

Now here's the real kicker; RJ broke his back on impact, and was still able to pull the other guys out of the chopper, and hold off the NVA until the cavalry arrived. After recuperating, he stayed in the SEALs for the rest of his career. When I met him, he was the XO of Team Two, out of Coronado. Look up "genuine hero" in the dictionary, and it should have his picture in there somewhere. Quite a guy.

Dan, will the 82 gr Bergers stablize with a 1-8 barrel or do they need a 1-7?

Yes they will. One of my juniors shot a 199-7x at 600 yards two weeks ago using 82s in a stock Rock River National Match rifle. Load was 24.1gr of RL15 in a WCC case. That rifle has a 1:8" Wilson barrel with a Wylde chamber. It really doesn't get much better than that with a service rifle.

I saw you have Varget. Try 24.0 under the 82s. Set the bullets somewhere between .010" and .040" off of the lands. It should shoot just fine.